Dave Orrick: Minnesota deer hunting: Copper bullets gain support

Betty Wilkens of Mora, Minn., with a deer she shot with an all-copper round during the 2011 mussleloader season. Wilkens is among a small but growing number of deer hunters who are switching to copper bullets for a number of reasons, ranging from ballistic capabilities to non-toxic properties of copper, when compared to lead.
(Photo courtesy Betty Wilkens)

Next weekend, as she has for more than 40 years, Betty Wilkens will be out in the woods near her home near Mora in east-central Minnesota with one of her rifles on her shoulder and deer in her sights.

But no lead in the chamber.

Wilkens is among a small but apparently growing group of deer hunters in the Midwest who will be shooting solid copper rounds from their rifles and shotguns this year.

Their motivations vary, but topping the list is that copper kills -- often better than lead.

Copper bullets and slugs also are becoming more affordable and more widely available, although searching through the ammo aisle at retailers can be frustrating.

And then there's the fact that copper, when compared with lead, is nontoxic for the environment, human consumption and bald eagles.

Taylor Feavel, 4, sizes up a live bald eagle at Cabela's in Rogers, Minn., Saturday Oct. 20, 2012. The event was initially promoted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to promote "eagle-safe" copper ammunition, but in the end, it was an eagle event with no connection to hunting or lead bullets, which can poison eagles.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

But be careful with that last bit. It's a touchy subject.

"It's not a lead issue or an eagle issue; it's a ballistics issue," said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, at a recent round table on the issue. Johnson will be packing all-copper rounds he and a friend loaded themselves.

'DEER DROP QUICKLY'

Solid copper bullets have been around for years, but their ballistic qualities were generally inferior to tried-and-true lead bullets.

That has changed.

"Technology is catching up," said Ryan Bronson, conservation specialist for Anoka-based Federal Premium Ammunition, who also was at the recent round table. "We've added a second copper round (to Federal's selection), so people can draw their own conclusions."

In many calibers, Federal's copper rounds rank second-from-the-top in a number of ballistic characteristics.

Some copper rounds hold their shapes and lines better from muzzle to target than lead bullets.

Once they reach the target, bullets made of copper, which is lighter and harder than lead, outperform lower-priced lead bullets, according to numerous reports and marketing materials from the ammo industry, as well as information on DNR websites from several states.

Anoka-based Federal Ammunition offers solid copper rounds in several popular rifle calibers, including 30-06 as part of its Vital Shock Trophy Copper line. Copper rounds are more expensive than low-priced rounds, but the copper rounds have superior ballistic qualities and are non-toxic.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

Lead bullets fragment, while copper holds together, flowering to create a larger wound channel but holding together with 95 percent to 100 percent weight retention.

Wilkens said she didn't need science to tell her that when she started using copper about five years ago, when off-the-shelf rounds entered the Minnesota market.

"It holds up better, it drops less over 200 yards and it gives me a better pattern," said Wilkens, who also shoots copper during the muzzleloader season. "In four of my rifles, copper outperformed lead. And the deer that I hit, a lot of them, they go right down. It's a good wound channel, a lot of blood, easy-to-follow trail and they drop quickly."

Unlike Johnson, though, Wilkens' decision to shoot lead isn't just about ballistics.

Undated courtesy photo show the components of a solid copper deer hunting rifle round made by Anoka-based Federal Ammunition. Some deer hunters are espousing copper as ballistically superior to lead, but the subject is touchy because it can lead to talk of lead's toxicity. (Photos courtesy Federal Ammunition)

"My background is in chemistry, and lead is toxic, period," said Wilkens, a prominent environmentalist and conservationist in the outdoors community who has been a key figure in the venison donation program. "We've known that for 100 years. But I don't dwell on that because it raises hackles."

NO LEAD BAN

No one proposed banning lead for deer hunting in Minnesota during last year's legislative session, and such a plan would seem unlikely to pass any time soon.

But the notion of a lead ban is still the 800-pound buck in the room.

Some anti-hunting groups, environmentalists and advocates for bald eagles do support a ban, while many others might not push openly for a ban but would prefer a world without lead.

Lead-bullet fragmentation in deer carcasses has threatened to derail Minnesota's venison-donation program, which provides locally harvested, healthy meat to food shelves. Because of health concerns over lead in food, all venison killed with lead bullets is X-rayed in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, scavenging raptors, such as bald eagles and condors in California, have died from lead poisoning after consuming lead from gut piles of deer killed by hunters.

In 2008, California banned all lead in condor territory. Lead has been banned in waterfowl hunting in Minnesota since 1987 and nationwide since 1991. In 2006, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Nontoxic Shot Advisory Committee concluded, "It is inevitable that lead shot will have to be restricted for all shotgun hunting at some future time."

The National Sports Shooting Foundation, the firearms and ammo industries' lobbying group, opposes a lead ban.

Start talking about copper rounds with folks in the outdoors industry, and you'll likely elicit a somewhat defensive response.

"Cabela's is not there to take a position," said Steve Lonn, retail marketing manager for the Cabela's in Rogers. "We're about giving you choices, and we do offer alternative deer bullets, if that's your choice."

Lonn, who took care not to even mention lead in his comments, found himself choosing his words to a reporter carefully on a recent Saturday when a promotional event hit a little too close for comfort.

The Minnesota DNR, which asks hunters only to "consider the information" on lead and nontoxic bullets, promoted the event like this:

"The DNR, the Raptor Center and Cabela's have teamed up to promote a variety of new copper rifle and shotgun ammunition for deer hunting. This is the first eagle-safe event to promote copper ammunition for deer hunting by a major outdoor retailer in the nation."

Word got out, phones started ringing and the event turned into an eagle appreciation event, with hundreds viewing the Raptor Center's live eagle. But the event was moved away from the ammunition part of the store, and there was no mention of lead, copper or ammunition in general.

St. Paul-based Gander Mountain declined an interview request for this story. At one Gander Mountain, staff at the gun counter appeared unsure when asked where solid-copper deer rounds could be found, although the retailer does sell such rounds on its website.

TRICKY TO FIND

In fact, many major retailers carry copper rounds in several calibers, as well as sabot slugs for shotguns with rifled barrels.

But the rounds are not always prominently labeled. One Federal line does say "lead-free slug," but packaging on some boxes of Winchester, Federal and other ammunition makers is ambiguous as to how much copper is in the round or whether they contain lead.

Still, the conversation is happening.

The recent round table with Johnson and Bronson also included a DNR conservation officer, Raptor Center representatives and Carrol Henderson, supervisor of the DNR's nongame wildlife program. Members of the outdoors media were invited.

Henderson and Johnson had co-bylined a story for Whitetails magazine espousing copper's ballistic attributes. That such cooperation was even taking place was remarkable, even if the common ground was limited.

"We can promote copper as a superior deer hunting load," Henderson said. "I'm hoping that some of the controversy around this can be softened."